Ever experienced/witnessed a miracle?

[sohackedoff]

Have you ever experienced or witnessed a miracle? If so, please share.

My mum, a committed Christian, had ulcerative colitis. She'd had it for years and was on the verge of having a colostomy bag fitted. She received prayer and was healed.

If you'd be ok with having in a church, your vows can be adapted so that you wouldn't have to make Christian promises, but he could if he chose. Your kids don't have to be christened, but again, the promises can be adapted so the non-Christian parent can be included but not forced to make promises they don't believe in. DP (we're not married and have no plans to) promised to support me in bringing our kids up in the church, which we agreed on as long as I never force them to go, which I wouldn't. He sounds like a really decent man who would respect your beliefs, and you sound like you would be happy for him to continue his church activities and respect his faith, so there's no reason it wouldn't work. I grew up in a house with lots of church meetings and stuff going on, and if I couldn't cope with them I'd just take myself upstairs no I never played the Sex Pistols full volume as a rebellious teenager, not me

I agree with Planetmuff. The human mind is an incredible thing, and when people pray, and it 'works', it's actually because they've managed to channel that incredible part of their own brain. When people say 'believe in yourself and you can do anything' they're pretty much right. Examples of people being miraculously healed are everything to do with that person 'believing' they could be healed and nothing at all to do with any God. This is how faith works. It gives people this strength, but this business of God is just a way of channelling it.

I'm not sure I'm making sense, but as Planetmuff said, there's a lot more that the human mind is capable of that we don't know yet/haven't explored properly.

Yup the people with aneurysms had medical treatment.

But the chap with metalwork which spontaneously disappeared didn't have surgery to extract it. The man who threw away his hearing aids hadn't had treatment to improve his hearing.

I'd never walk away from modern medicine. I owe my life to medical intervention. But I have met people who have had incurable medical conditions healed. Smaller things; I know a chap who gave his life to Christ, and was instantly healed of a drug addiction - no cravings, no withdrawal. Didn't solve all the messy life issues which had come from being such a long term addict, but the addiction was cured.

And I know others who have fallen back into addiction, time after time, and we lift them back up, clean them up, keep on praying, and hope that one day things will be better.

I will ask again, why has 'God' never cured an amputee? Like not even once...

Do you know he hasn't?

I don't know. I have no idea why God chooses to heal some people and not others. Doesnt invalidate the healings he has done though.

"Yup the people with aneurysms had medical treatment.

But the chap with metalwork which spontaneously disappeared didn't have surgery to extract it. The man who threw away his hearing aids hadn't had treatment to improve his hearing. "

Could you say some more about the man who had metalwork that disappeared? Who was he? When and where did it happen?

Has there ever been a clinically examined and documented healing case which the medical community had no explanation for (like a limb growing back?)

Spontaneous remission is a known phenomenon, so not counting that.

Something rigorously examined but inexplicable and incompatible with what we know about how human bodies work?

Matilda i love that anecdote, too!
A miracle doesn't have to be the 'happened overnight' type, nor does it have to exclude other things - God choses to work through the hands of people.
Yes, a lot of family & friends gained strength & comfort through prayer, Bertrand. They needed it, that time was very tough.

I'm not comfortable sharing more details about the metalwork chap as its his story to tell and not mine.

This is rather old, but might it be the kind of evidence you are looking for? www.is-there-a-god.info/life/tenhealings/

Iirc one of the miracles attributed to John Paul II is the cure of a brain aneurysm. As in, had an aneurysm, then didn't.

It's a shame that this thread descended into Atheists Against Miracles. :(

I've had two minor miracles in my family. The first was when my grandmother was pregnant with my mum. She was planning on having her at home (as was the custom then, in 1940s Wales). One night, my grandmother had a dream that her own (deceased) mum stood at the end of her bed, and pointed out of the window, up the hill towards the hospital. My grandmother took that as a sign that she ought to have her baby in hospital. She did, and the doctors were there to intervene when things went horribly wrong. If she'd been at home, she and my mum would've died. I think that's a miracle!

The second happened to me when DS1 was 3. We'd gone to the supermarket and I'd let him ride in the bottom of one of the small trolleys. He stood up, and I didn't really notice it, so I swung the trolley around quite sharply, and he fell out. He hit the floor with a HUGE crash and really whacked the back of his head against the floor. It was a long way for a little 3 y/o to fall.

He was screaming, I was crying - we were both in a tearful heap in the floor, hugging and weeping. I didn't know what to do. I completely went to pieces. Suddenly a woman appeared and took over. She talked to DS, asked him questions, looked at his eyes, and all the time was rubbing, rubbing, rubbing the back of his head. I was thinking it must've been sore for him, with her rubbing it so much. After about 5 minutes, she told he he would be fine. And then she vanished. As DS and I left the shop, I suddenly noticed something on the floor - it was a small, metal coin, imprinted with a picture of an angel.

DS was fine - the hospital checked him over and commented it was strange that he didn't have even a tiny bump on his head. We kept the coin, and I had a cast made of it in silver that he can wear as his Guardian Angel talisman.

The posters who are tearing apart the miracles people have talked about, why are you doing it? Why does it affect you personally if people take comfort from something that they believe yet can't be proven? Even if it's not real, the fact it offers peace in hard times isn't harming anyone is it?

I'm not tearing anything apart. I just hate to see people being deceived and exploited.

Because if they believe that the miracle has occurred then they'll continue to believe that miracles can happen if they pray hard enough

Where does that end? Not taking a sick child to hospital? Withholding medication? Doing something really stupid with the belief that God will come through? It's ludicrous. If it was any other example then everyone would be scoffing, I really don't understand why God gets a free pass

Gees, what about all those people who didn't get healed, still died, walked in front of the bus, etc. They didn't get their 'miracle'. Why is that? They weren't special enough? What Bertrand said. It's like those people who say they can speak to the dead and charge people money to see them - exploiting and deceiving vulnerable people.

is the miracle worker a previous poster referred to.

Fair enough if people are being exploited, that's out of order. But people who believe little miracles happened in their own lives aren't harming anyone.

Actually I believe that supernatural thinking, a lack of scientific education and teaching critical thinking is harmful to society overall.

We would make more progress in curing disease and achieving peace if time, money, energy and resources currently put into worshipping gods and converting people, were put in to teaching science and researching disease.

I was healed last year. The year before I broke my ankle really badly, had to have a big op and got a huge metal plates and screws in it now. After i got my cast off months laterI could hardly move my foot, went to physio several times a week, was in so much pain at the end of every day, couldn't jump, run, walk down stairs properly because my foot didn't move and bend properly, my foot and ankle was so swollen every night I looked like I had an elephant's leg and a normal leg. My consultant said there wasn't much to be done but keep going with the physio and hopefully I would see progress in a few years and maybe the swelling would go away after another year! Someone prayed for me at our church we had just started going to, I didn't feel any different that day, ankle was still swollen that night. But the next day I woke up and walked down the stairs normally without even thinking about it! My ankle has never swollen again, I can move it freely and pain is pretty occasional now instead of constant every single day and night. Have never been back to see that consultant or physio :)

HermioneWeasley so your beliefs trump everybody else's? With a few exceptions, it's the scientists and atheists on this thread being negative about other people's beliefs. All the while ranting that people with faith are the intolerant ones. It's ironic really.

I am neither ranting nor being intolerant. I have repeatedly said that if prayer brings comfort, thenobviously it's a wonderful thing.

But people are often the victims of trickery and deception. It sounds to me as if some of the people on this thread have been. And that is just immoral and wrong.

Atheist and scientist here.

Reading through this thread, it is the Tim Minchin video that lingers in my mind.

I find myself thinking about Sam and his mum and wondering, on the assumption they are real people, what their reaction would be if they knew that their beliefs were being used to amuse a whole auditorium full of sophisticated rationalists. I think Sam’s mum could end up having a relapse from stress! (There is an association between a raised level of cortisol and cataract formation.)

No, I don’t agree with her assessment of what happened but I feel uneasy about her being ridiculed in that way. I'd get performance angst if I knew that all those people were praying for me - but for Sam's mum the thought of those prayers from her 'tribe' steadied her in a difficult time.

Life’s hard. Some people derive comfort from irrational beliefs. I’ve known quite a number of scientists who have recharged their batteries in churches and then come into work and been scrupulously rational. I couldn’t personally make the switch back and forth but they do!

Just to reassure you, Sam and his mum are fictional.

And the point of the song is not that she was "steadied" by the prayers, but that her cateracts miraculously disappeared. Two very different things.

I don’t have a problem with Sam’s mum believing her cataract was miraculously healed … as long as she also keeps up with her medical appointments! I don’t feel the need to impose my worldview on her. If the belief makes her feel more relaxed and hopeful, this might support the natural healing mechanisms in her body keeping her healthy.

Are cateracts something the body's natural healing mechanism can fix? Better tell Sightsvers - all those volunteer surgeons could have a holiday for a change...........